Sunday, September 1, 2013

MOPHIE ~ Juice Pack Helium For The iPhone 5

 
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iPhone 5 On-Board Battery Pack

© 2013 BOB SKIDMORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

BOB SKIDMORE

CORRESPONDENT


Many months ago I reviewed the Mophie Juice Pack, an external power source for the iPhone 3 series. In the months that followed an iPhone 4 version was introduced. It too was a great power source, but poor molding resulted in connection and lens port issues. Factory revisions offered little or no improvement. So, let’s revisit Mophie and its latest product, Juice Pack Helium for the iPhone 5.

One of the biggest downfalls of any smartphone is battery time. iPhone is certainly no exception. Yes, there are many tricks to conserving power, but the fact is, it’s hardly possible to operate one for a twelve-hour day without a recharge. So, the Mophie Juice Pack Helium offers a solution, in he form of an attached, on-board, battery pack that looks and feels like part of the phone.

(TIP: To conserve power turn off your apps when they’re not is use. Just double click on HOME button  > A set of apps appear at the bottom of the screen > Hold finger on any one till apps wiggle > Tap each red dot and they will disappear. You’ll not loose anything. You’ve turned off the app’s thus eliminating non-essential power drain.)

The Juice Pack Helium easily attaches to your iPhone 5. Its built-in lightning plug automatically connects when the Juice Pack is mounted, thus connecting and supplying power from the Juice Pack when needed. A cutout for the camera’s lens, unlike the previous model, allows for non-reflective picture taking. A pass-through audio connector slot allows access to the accessory jack. Since this slot is considerably recessed, a short extender cable is supplied. If there’s a negative, this is it, as it’s just another item to loose and certain external microphones dangle from the phone. Operation is like any other Mophie product. When your phone shows a battery time remaining percentage of around 25% you switch over to Juice Pack mode. The Juice Pack now begins charging the phone’s internal battery without service interruption. This takes about an hour and generally results in a 100% charge. You’ve now almost doubled your battery time. Charging of the combined unit is accomplished with a supplied special USB cable.

(TIP: The Juice Pack Helium is rechargeable for over 500 cycles. A full cycle means charging is from 0% - 100%. Partial cycles do not count as full cycles. Some days you may never need to engage the pack, so the usable lifespan could be several years.)

The MOPHIE Juice Pack Helium works very well. The improvements made add much to its usefulness and the slight additional weight of 2.44 Oz gives it a better feel. I did, however, notice that a slight bit of case pealing took place on the left side of the silver metallic model I tested. This happened only days after receiving the unit and with very careful usage. Since then, no further peeling has taken place.

(TIP: Rocketfish mobile makes the perfect hip-mount case for this combination. For further details go to http://bit.ly/15XGjKl.)



MSRP: $79.75 • Rockfish hip case $24.95

For more information go to: http://bit.ly/WCAHv

GADGETEER’S RATING: *****

Bob Skidmore is a freelance writer, who may be contacted at bob.thegadgeteer.skidmore@gmail.com, or followed at twitter.com/bskidmore for the latest gadget industry news. He does not represent, or endorse any of the products he reviews and his opinions are solely his points of view and not those of the manufacturer. The manufacturer generally supplies products at no cost for the articles and no other compensation is received. THE GADGETEER is highly selective as to products he feels worthy of review so as not to waste the reader’s time, thus the reason for many superior ratings.

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